Plant Nursery in Space

I'll definitely look for this research that you refer to. I happen
to think that you're right about this matter. I was writing more
about creating an ecosystem for a habitat of 10,000 - 1,000,000
people. If you recall in my original post, I proposed using the
oxygen that results from mineral processing in combine with carbon
and feeding the resulting CO2 into the nursery.

Now, perhaps we could do without a land based ecosystem and rely
completely on an aquatic one to support the environment for the
thousands of people living in the habitat. The land would be barren
but the lakes would be teeming with life. Could it work? I don't
know of any studies that rely completely on an aquatic ecocycle.
Also, by ecocycle, I'm referring to more than just the
photosynthesis cycle. I'm including all of the bugs, bacteria,
little mammels, bees, plants, etc that we have here on earth. In
order to create such an ecosystem, I think that long range planning
will be required and it might take decades to establish itself or to
equalize. It may be to late to start when the airlocks open for the
first 10,000 people. I don't know.

For a construction shack type space station, what you're referring
to is probably most appropriate. There'd be all sorts of ducting and
air exchange mechanisms, and all of the CO2 could be cycled through
to the tanks with the seaweed and plankton. I don't rely foresee the
need to have an ecosystem on a "space station."

Thanks for the reference material. I'll look for it.

> A more economical, smaller space requirement and better oxygen
production
> would be an aqua culture of plankton and Sargasso seaweed. I have
read
> reports in Discover, Nature and other magazines that Sargasso
seaweed
> produces 20% more oxygen than trees do per pound of biomass. I
believe the
> original reports from the research groups are online. sorry I
don't remember
> the authors or the month of the mags although it was early this
year.
>
> One could run a closed tank with plastic pipes running through the
tank to
> extract oxygen and use the tank for biological sewage treatment
thus